Polk County, TN tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Kimberly Ingram is the Clerk and Master. Email [email protected], fax (423) 338-4553. Posted office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The Clerk and Master is appointed to a six-year term.
• •The Chancery Court page states the office's duties include "filing various pleadings, issuing summons and subpoenas, preparing dockets, collecting court costs, and receiving and disbursing payments ordered by the Court," and adds that "This office also processes, collects, and/or sells property with delinquent taxes." That last line is the clearest official confirmation that the Clerk and Master, not the Trustee, conducts the delinquent tax sale in Polk County.
• •The county's only published mention of a tax sale sits under a "Delinquent Tax Sales" heading on the Assessor of Property page, which directs inquiries to the Clerk and Master's Office or to Eric Brooks at (423) 618-5078, [email protected], and then states plainly: "We have no information on delinquent tax sales in this office."
• •Eric Brooks is listed in the UT CTAS directory as the Polk County Attorney at (423) 618-5078. The same attorney appears as the delinquent tax attorney on the neighboring Meigs County chancery delinquent tax order, which is consistent with his role as the contact for Polk County delinquent tax sales.
• •Only the Chancery Court page and the Assessor of Property page mention delinquent taxes anywhere on the county website. The site has no public notices page, no tax sale page, and no delinquent parcel list, and the Bids and RFP page carries only construction solicitations.
• •No online auction platform is verified for Polk County. The county names none, and Polk does not appear in the Tennessee jurisdiction list on the GovEase live auction portal, which covers the City of Jackson, Coffee, Decatur, Hamblen, Hawkins, Henry, Lawrence, Madison, Montgomery, Obion, Sullivan, Washington and Wayne, several of them Special Commissioner sale postings. Absence from one platform does not by itself prove an in-person sale, so the sale venue is left unrecorded.
• •The Clerk of Court, Melissa Jenkins, 164 Industrial Access Cir / P.O. Box 256, Benton, TN 37307, (423) 338-4524, maintains records for Circuit, Criminal, General Sessions, Juvenile, Child Support and Traffic cases. That page publishes no tax function, so Polk County is not one of the Tennessee counties that runs the delinquent tax suit through the Circuit Court Clerk.
• •The Trustee, Gina Hicks-Burchfiel, 6239 Highway 411, Courthouse Room 208 / P.O. Box 302, Benton, TN 37307, (423) 338-4545, bills and collects current property taxes and offers online viewing and payment. The Trustee page says nothing about delinquent taxes or tax sales.
• •The Assessor of Property page lists October as the month property taxes become due, and notes that Polk County is on a five-year reappraisal cycle. Those are assessment and billing dates, not sale dates.
• •Data quality is medium rather than high: the responsible office, its duties, its contacts, and an official county page directing tax sale inquiries to it are all verified from official sources, but the sale date, auction platform, venue, bidder registration process, deposit rule, and parcel list are published nowhere on those sources and were left unrecorded rather than estimated.

Tennessee rules

Redemption

The right to redeem vests when the court enters the order confirming the sale and never runs longer than one year from that date. The court sets each parcel's period before the sale on a statutory scale: one year when the taxes were delinquent 5 years or less, 180 days when delinquent more than 5 but less than 8 years, 90 days when delinquent 8 years or more, and 30 days when the court finds the property vacant and abandoned. To redeem, an interested person files a motion in the same lawsuit and must first pay the clerk the full redemption amount; the purchaser then has 30 days after notice to ask the court for additional reimbursements. When the court declares the redemption complete, title divests from the purchaser and the clerk refunds the purchase money plus everything owed. During the redemption period the purchaser owes no duty to insure the parcel and is not liable for damage to it except from the purchaser's own intentional acts. Separately, a suit attacking the validity of the sale itself must normally be filed within one year of the confirmation order, with an absolute three-year outer limit.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2701, procedure for redemption, the tiered redemption periods, and the 12 percent interest owed the purchaser (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2701Verified Aug 18, 2026

Deed deposit

No statewide deposit percentage exists. The statute fixes the form of payment (cash, certified funds, cashier's check, money order, or ACH transfer) and each court sets its own payment terms. Davidson County takes cashier's checks only, Rutherford County requires payment by close of business the day after the sale, and counties selling through GovEase collect payment through the platform. Confirm the terms with the clerk and master that runs the sale before bidding.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2501, sale of land generally in delinquent tax suits (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2501Verified Aug 18, 2026

Surplus proceeds

Sale proceeds pay the delinquent tax attorney, then court costs, then the taxing entities. Any excess is claimed by motion in the same case: remaining taxes are paid first, then lienholders in order of priority (pre-sale liens before post-sale liens), then the former owner. Filing the motion ends any remaining redemption period as to the movant. Excess proceeds nobody claims pass to the state under the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2702, motions claiming excess sale proceeds (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2702Verified Aug 18, 2026

Governing statute

Tenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5, Parts 25-27Tennessee Code, free public access portal published by LexisNexis for the State of TennesseeTenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5Verified Aug 18, 2026

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

See the full Tennesseerules and every county →